MANCHESTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NYSE:MANU) Manchester United today extended the reach of its global social media activity with the launch of official pages on Google+, Instagram and Renren. This follows the Club’s successful launches on Twitter and Sina Weibo last month.
The new Google+ page (www.google.com/+manutd) will create an online community for Manchester United fans to engage with the Club and other members of the community across an exciting new platform. With over 500m Google+ users across the world, the page will enable the Club to share behind-the-scenes content, unique features and exclusive interviews. A live Google+ Hangout with two members of the first team will take place in late August, with details to be announced shortly.
The Club is also establishing a presence on Instagram (www.instagram.com/manchesterunited), a photo and video sharing service with over 130m users worldwide. This will allow fans to access, share and interact with the Club’s iconic imagery and exclusive videos.
In China, Manchester United is launching an official page on Renren (http://page.renren.com/manutd) a Chinese-language social media network that will allow the Club to further engage with its 108 million followers in the country.
Today’s announcement follows the successful launches on Twitter and Sina Weibo pages last month, each breaking growth records in their first month of operation. Manchester United also has over 34 million fans of its Facebook page, which launched in 2010.
Richard Arnold, Group Managing Director, said:
“Today marks another exciting development in the Club’s digital media offering. These social media sites provide us with the platform to unite our fans across the globe and bring them closer to the Club.
“Manchester United has an extremely passionate and loyal fan base and we have been overwhelmed by the success of our Twitter and Sina Weibo pages; our Twitter page alone achieved 350k followers in its first 24 hours of operation.
“We look forward to building on this enhanced level of fan engagement with the new services we have launched today.”
About Manchester United
Manchester United is one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world, playing one of the most popular spectator sports on Earth. Through our 135-year heritage we have won 61 trophies, enabling us to develop the world’s leading sports brand and a global community of 659 million followers. Our large, passionate community provides Manchester United with a worldwide platform to generate significant revenue from multiple sources, including sponsorship, merchandising, product licensing, new media & mobile, broadcasting and match day.